Nintendo takes home an armful of awards courtesy of ITV1's Game Stars & Edge Magazine

Tuesday 22nd April 2003 - Easter Sunday saw the broadcast of ITV1's inaugural Game Stars awards ceremony. The awards were voted for by the public, and represent one of the biggest ever polls of video gaming opinion.

In a coup for Nintendo, the GAME Retail: Most Wanted Award went to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, exclusively for NINTENDO GAMECUBE, successfully seeing off very respectable bids from Halo 2, Doom III and Enter The Matrix amongst a host of others.

Nintendo's most recent release in Europe for NINTENDO GAMECUBE, the outstanding Metroid Prime, took home the award for Best Adventure Game, beating some huge titles including Ratchet & Clank and PC title Neverwinter Nights.

Nintendo has also been the happy recipient of a raft of awards from Edge Magazine who announced their own choices of the best in video gaming from the last 12 months in their May issue.

Once again Metroid Prime has proven itself worthy of the abundant praise it has already received by scooping Edge's coveted Game of the Year category, pipping Neverwinter Nights to the post for the second time in a week. Super Mario Sunshine took a well-deserved third place in the category.

In a heartwarming victory for Nintendo, they took home the title of Publisher of the Year, beating Electronic Arts into second place. Additionally, co-developers of Metroid Prime with Nintendo, Retro Studios, came a very respectable third place in the Developer of the Year category.

Audio Achievement of the Year was taken by Metroid Prime, and finally, the recently launched Game Boy Advance SP took third place in the Hardware Innovation of the Year category.

Andy Williams, General Manager, Nintendo UK commented,

"Once again, these results have proven Nintendo's commitment to making the very best games. Despite not being released in time for these latest Edge awards, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker looks set to further strengthen Nintendo's reputation for excellence in video gaming."

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for NINTENDO GAMECUBE launches on 3 May 2003.

Click onto www.nintendo-europe.com for all of the most up to date official information on Nintendo.